Synopsis

At the Krusty Krab, it is Employee Brotherhood Day, a day on which all employees must exchange gifts that they made themselves. For his gift to Squidward, SpongeBob presents him with a sweater made out of his own eyelashes, so Squidward realizes Employee Brotherhood Day means a holiday called Squid's Off By One Day, a day in which strange things happen to him. When Squidward scoffs at this heartfelt gift, SpongeBob begins to cry copiously, eventually handing Squidward a sweater made from his own tears.

Squidward, wishing he could simply buy a gift instead of spending time on making one, finds a group of pirates outside with a sack of pies. The pirates inform him that these are actually pie-shaped bombs, but after Squidward offers to buy one, they claim that to be a joke and sell him a pie of indeterminate flavor for $25. Squidward presents his supposedly homemade pie to Mr. Krabs, who decides to give it a taste test. He breaks a tiny bit off the crust and goes to get some milk. Tripping on his way, the fallen crumb of pie explodes and wrecks the back of the Krusty Krab, blasting Squidward and Mr. Krabs away. While Mr. Krabs believes it to be a deliberate attempt on his life, Squidward confesses that he bought the pie ignorant of its contents.

When they arrive back at the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob has apparently eaten the entire pie. Mr. Krabs is disgusted at Squidward for his act, having seen this situation play out eleven times prior, tells Squidward that the pie will explode at sunset upon reaching SpongeBob's lower intestine. Squidward decides to make SpongeBob's remaining hours the most fun he's ever had, and so he asks him what he would most like to do. SpongeBob presents an extensive list of exactly that. A montage of Squidward and SpongeBob playing together is shown and the listed activities include greeting everyone in town, greeting everyone in town again with Squidward in a salmon suit, telling knock-knock jokes, and performing open heart surgery.

The final activity SpongeBob has planned is watching the sunset with Squidward. Remembering Mr. Krabs' warning (which SpongeBob sees and Mr. Krabs runs off), Squidward nervously agrees to participate. As they sit facing the setting sun, SpongeBob casually notes the brick wall Squidward has built between them. SpongeBob then mentions that if he were to die, "in some sort of fiery explosion due to the carelessness of a friend," this sunset would be exactly what he would want to see. Squidward begins to tear up at this while SpongeBob lets out a small burp, saying something of indeterminate flavor just hit his lower intestine. With the sun nearly past the horizon, SpongeBob begins a five-second countdown, letting Squidward finish the count. At the end of the first count, with the sun still visible, SpongeBob chuckles that they may have started too early. Squidward, increasingly nervous, begins counting down once more. When he hits "zero," the sun finally sets and an explosion rocks the wall. Squidward breaks down into tears, thankful he was at least able to make SpongeBob's last few hours meaningful.

Explosion over Bikini Bottom

Another explosion occurs, which knocks the wall down, crushing Squidward. He pulls himself out from underneath and, to his bewilderment, finds SpongeBob alive and well and blowing bubble bombs. Squidward angrily berates SpongeBob that he was supposed to explode after eating the pie. At first, SpongeBob is confused, but then remembers the pie he was saving in his back pocket for them to share while Squidward realizes he did everything for nothing. SpongeBob then walks over to share it with Squidward, but SpongeBob trips over a nearby rock and accidentally flings the pie directly at his face. The resulting collision triggers the bomb inside the pie, demolishing all of Bikini Bottom in a nuclear explosion. Squidward miraculously survives, uttering a very plain "Ouch" as the episode ends.

Production

Development

Footage of the Operation Crossroads' Baker atomic test is used to represent the explosion near the end of the episode. The test was conducted at Bikini Atoll. The series is set in the fictional city of Bikini Bottom, located beneath Bikini Atoll.

Release

Reception

As of September 9, 2018, The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gives this episode a rating of 9.3/10 based on 525 ratings by users.[1] TV.com users give this episode a rating of 9.1/10 based on 182 votes.[2]

"Dying for Pie" was ranked #52 during the Best Day Ever event on November 9–10, 2006.

Trivia

Timeline

General

Squidward drives a boatmobile in this episode, but he frequently appears using his bicycle or walking to work. However, Squidward appears driving another boat in "Boating Buddies."

This is the first episode where "Chief Taravana" plays in its normal pitch.

There is a bumper sticker on Squidward's boatmobile that reads "Don't ask me about my day."

When SpongeBob slides his body across the Krusty Krab glass window, he leaves a trail of clearness with part of the glass turning lighter. It's implied here that SpongeBob's body is cleaning the glass, as he is a sponge.

Mr. Krabs mentions he had seen bomb dealing "11 times" before. The bomb was purchased from pirates and it is implied that Mr. Krabs witnessed 11 comrades in the navy die from pirate attacks during his time in the war.

SpongeBob's "things to do for his friendship" list:

Show Squidward to everyone in town

Show Squidward to everyone in town in a salmon suit

Knock-knock jokes

Open-heart surgery

Throw

Giggle

Lookin' like (cut off)

Thumb puppets

Reverse Friends

Imagination

Act like apes

All-you-can

Trade faces

Peel-a-go (cut off)

Open-heart surgery (again)

Juggling

Read a story

Babble like an idiot (unseen)

Watch the sunset with Squidward

Hundreds of other unseen acts

This is the first episode where there is an oversized explosion/nuclear reaction.

In the Polish dub, the episode's title is "Bombowe ciasto," which translates to "The Bomb Pie."

SpongeBob also said that he and Squidward will finish the book by October, not January.

In German, this episode is called "Die Kuchen-Bombe," which translates to "The Pie Bomb." "Employees Brotherhood Day" translates to "Alle-Angestellten-Sind Freunde Tag" or "All Employees are Friends Day." The characters' voice actors translate the writing themselves: "Do Not Ask Me About My Day" becomes "Frag Mich Nicht Wie's Mir Geht," translating to "Do Not Ask Me How I Am."

In the Croatian dub, the episode's name is "Ubojita Pita," which translates to "Deadly Pie." In the Russian dub, the translation is the same.

SpongeBob breaks the fourth wall when he talks to the audience and says "Hey look, it's Mr. Krabs!"

Errors

In the beginning scene where Squidward plays the piano, the note he plays that makes the ringing sound is actually a D, while it is animated to be an F.

When Squidward and Mr. Krabs walk to the door, the latter's eyebrows disappear.

When SpongeBob says "eyelashes," his forehead is noticeably higher. The lighter part is also shown, which is where his eyebrows are supposed to be, not his eyelashes.

After Squidward scolds Mr. Krabs for making Employee Brotherhood Day, when he says "...that guy!," Mr. Krabs is seen clearly with no legs.

Also in that same scene, Squidward only has two legs.

Before the pie piece explodes at the Krusty Krab, Squidward's Krusty Krab employee hat is on, but after the explosion, it is gone.

Mr. Krabs without legs and Squidward with only two

When Mr. Krabs takes a small piece of the pie and says that it would be more delicious with some milk, when the small piece of pie explodes after he trips down, the place where the small pie explodes strangely moves behind Mr. Krabs' counter.

When Mr. Krabs drops a small piece of pie on the barrel, it causes a violent explosion in the Krusty Krab. However, when Squidward carelessly drops the pie onto Mr. Krabs' desk, it causes to no reaction or explosion.

When Squidward and Mr. Krabs turn from watching SpongeBob in the office, the some of the background overlaps Mr. Krabs.

After Squidward and Mr. Krabs are blown out of the Krusty Krab and they see the pie is gone, the wall is blown inwards instead of outwards.

When Mr. Krabs tries to eat a piece of the pie, he leaves a small hole in it. When SpongeBob takes it out from his pocket and walks to Squidward, the hole is gone.

The open-heart surgery appears to come after the trade faces activity, but it is also written after the knock-knock jokes.

When SpongeBob checks some of the things off the list, the list glitches and overlaps itself, seeming to fold.

The order of things to do on the list changes multiple times throughout the episode.

The bandage on Squidward's chest disappears when he and SpongeBob go watch the sunset.

When the brick wall that is separating Squidward and SpongeBob during the sunset breaks down after the bubble bomb explosion, a brick flies out of it. During the second bubble explosion, the brick is suddenly back in the wall when it is in the air, and disappears again when it falls on top of Squidward.

When SpongeBob says, "Well since we finished everything on the list, I thought I'd make up a new one," the closed captions read, "Well since we finished everything on the list I made a new one."

There is no rock near SpongeBob when Squidward yells at him. When SpongeBob says, "Oh! You mean this pie!," the screen eases into the pie. When it zooms out, a rock appears near SpongeBob and thus, he tripped.

When Squidward and Mr. Krabs are in the latter's office, the clock has 15 hour lines, but when Squidward remembers Mr. Krabs later in the episode, the clock has 12 lines.

On SpongeBob's list, one of the things is "Introduce friend in a salmon suit." However, after SpongeBob checks off juggling, he checks off to introduce friend in a salmon suit a second time, when this was already done.

Running gags

Kids throwing rocks at Squidward and SpongeBob laughing as he checks things off the list.